Best luxury UK hotels: Where to stay for great food, family adventures and spa retreats
From rural country houses to grand dames in the city, here’s our pick of decadent British stays
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Your support makes all the difference.While we’re all for an escape that won’t break the bank, sometimes big-ticket occasions call for a push-the-boat out, blow-the-budget, truly special getaway. Luckily, the UK has plenty of luxe places to choose from.
Perhaps you’re in desperate need of some R&R – whether you want to swim laps, laze poolside or take a well earned walk through a secret garden after a bespoke facial and massage, there are many luxury spas to take your stress away.
Maybe luxury to you means a city break where you can see the sights of your favourite metropolis and take in dinner and a show. Or perhaps you’d rather get away from it all and escape to the peace and tranquility of a Scottish castle, a lake-side manor house or even climb into a treehouse.
Whatever your preference, whether it’s feasting at an acclaimed foodie retreat, old-school glamour or a contemporary countryside idyll you’re after, we’ve found some of the UK’s best luxury hotels that deliver top-notch service and truly spoiling stays.
The best luxury hotels in the UK are:
- Best for foodies: Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons
- Best for louche luxury: The Pig at Bridge Place
- Best for a rebalancing retreat: Lime Wood
- Best for family adventures: Gleneagles
- Best for romantic retreats: Beaverbrook
- Best for swish surrounds: Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
- Best for spa and wellness: Chewton Glen
- Best for a city break: The Savoy
- Best manor house hotel: Callow Hall
- Best countryside retreat: The Grove of Narberth
Best for foodies: Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, A Belmond Hotel
Location: Oxfordshire
Offering a flourish of France in Oxfordshire, Le Manoir, helmed by culinary maestro Raymond Blanc, has long been a foodie pilgrimage site. At this honey-hued Cotswolds stone manor house, surrounded by Provencal lavender and a herb-filled garden, guests dine on two-Michelin wizardry at the restaurant. Hand-dived scallops with caviar rub up against strawberries with sorrel sorbet, paired with Chateau d’Yquem vintages, and very polished service. Afterwards, retire to one of 32 bedrooms, with interiors inspired by Monsieur Blanc’s travels; some evoke Asia with dark timber and draped curtains, others feature Venetian masks. Left inspired to ramp up your own skills? Join the cookery school or a gardening workshop.
Best for louche luxury: The Pig at Bridge Place
Location: Canterbury
Nobody does modern luxury like The Pigs, and the outpost in the Nailbourne Valley outside Canterbury is no exception. A 17th-century red brick pile where the likes of Led Zeppelin gigged in days gone by, this 31-room hotel nails eclectic cool, fusing Jacobean period features with kaleidoscopic maximalism. Its storehouse-chic restaurant has a 25-mile menu, with much grown in the kitchen garden. Whether nibbling marmalade cake in the courtyard, sipping basil-infused Greenhouse Margaritas in candlelit nooks or enjoying a VOYA spa treatment in a Potting Shed treatment room, everything here is an occasion. Opt for the main house for risqué touches – some have golden four posters – or Hop Pickers Huts for top-tier cosiness.
Price: Doubles from £200
Read more: Best Lake District hotels
Best for a rebalancing retreat: Lime Wood
Location: The New Forest
It’s impossible for your soul not to feel lifted after a visit to Lime Wood, which has 33 rooms in a revamped 13th-century forest lodge and sprinkled through its wooded grounds. The New Forest National Park setting informs floral decor – contemporary rather than twee – twinned with antique furnishings. Superstar spa Herb House is all about restoring balance, with Bamford, VOYA or Sarah Chapman treatments on offer across 10 rooms.
There are warm pools for soaking as well as a 16m indoor pool for swims with garden views. Graze on nourishing borlotti bean salads and rosewater, chickpea and pistachio meringues at in-spa restaurant Raw & Cured, or, for something more hearty, excellent Hartnett Holder & Co delivers stylish Italian home-cooked fare.
Price: Doubles from £495
Best for family adventures: Gleneagles
Location: Perthshire
Synonymous with Scottish luxury, Gleneagles in Perthshire’s Ochil Hills will trick you into feeling like you’re a laird or lady of the manor in no time. Set in a rolling 850-acre estate, it has a hint of French Chateau allure and 233 smart rooms with countryside-inspired decor. Best of all is the vast roster of activities – from tree-climbing to falconry – on offer. Combined with a championship golf course, revamped spa, den space for difficult-to-please teens, and several glorious restaurants and bars, it’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Don’t miss the two-Michelin-starred Andrew Fairlie restaurant, and botanical cocktails at the sultry, 1920s-feel American Bar.
Best for romantic retreats: Beaverbrook
Location: Surrey Hills
The former home of press baron Lord Beaverbrook, this 19th-century mansion and its 470-acre grounds – a mix of woodland, folly-filled gardens and a shell grotto – bring Gatsby glam to Surrey. The antiques-filled Main House has a grand staircase that spills into lounges with green-on-green panoramas. From a retro wood-panelled cinema to Sir Frank’s Bar – where martinis accompanied by caviar are de rigueur – Beaverbrook delivers unbridled opulence at its best.
Abstract art-filled bedrooms keep you close to the action in the Main House, while those in The Garden and Coach Houses are more whimsical. The spa, renowned for its stained-glass ceiling, serves up AS Apothecary massages and has an indoor and outdoor pool. Sushi at the Japanese Grill and Mediterranean fare at the Garden House both deserve standing ovations.
Price: Doubles from £610
Best for swish surrounds: Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park
Location: Knightsbridge
Sandwiched between Hyde Park and Knightsbridge’s fancy boutiques, with The Saatchi Gallery and Royal Court theatre on the doorstop, Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park pairs a brilliant location with slick service and wolf-whistle dining at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. Bedrooms with gentle apple green, blush and peacock blue shades pay homage to the hotel’s Royal Park neighbour with leafy motifs, luxed up with onyx chandeliers, record players, Diptyque toiletries and GHD hair straighteners. Top-level suites have terraces or balconies and personal butlers. Other highlights include spotting the Household Cavalry clip-clop past the property in the mornings, and there’s a ritzy spa with a 17m pool, amethyst crystal steam room and mani pedis by nail guru Bastien Gonzalez.
Best for spa and wellness: Chewton Glen
Location: Hampshire
Another New Forest wonder, this 18th-century country house hotel does English charm with aplomb. Think bedrooms with frilled curtains in rose and moss palettes, marble bathrooms and croquet lawn views. Up-to-the-minute quirk comes in 14 eco-friendly treehouses, perched 35ft high in a wooded valley. As high-end as glamping gets, they’ve floor-to-ceiling windows, vaulted ceilings and hot tubs on hardwood terraces for sundowners. Masterclasses in everything from watercolour painting to wine tasting, golf on the nine-hole course, spa time, lessons at the James Martin cookery school – or simply dining on elevated Brit classics in his restaurant – can easily fill a getaway. That said, it’s worth getting out on a forest hack, going sailing on the Solent or, to go truly sky high, get staff to arrange a coastal helicopter flight.
Best for a city break: The Savoy
Location: Northbank, London
This Thameside grande dame is a class act, with 267 rooms kitted out in Art Deco and Edwardian style with marble, chequerboard floors and weighty clawfoot bathtub. Oh, and a Royal Suite kitted out by Gucci. Check in and you’ll be slumbering in the wake of the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Maria Callas. Both the Queen and Marilyn Monroe dined in The Savoy Grill, which, alongside seafood-focused River Restaurant, is headed up by Gordon Ramsey. Service is flawless, and one-bed river view suites and above include an unflappable personal butler.
While some afternoon teas are gimmicky, The Savoy’s – served in the Thames Foyer with classic sandwiches, scones, and pastries as pretty as the room’s glass domed atrium – is the real deal. Meanwhile, the American Bar, London’s longest-surviving cocktail bar, is a Mad Men-feel mirrored space, where clever cocktails are served.
Best manor house hotel: Callow Hall
Location: Derbyshire
Proving you don’t have to be eye-wateringly expensive to do luxury, Callow Hall is a spoiling, sustainably minded gateway to the rugged Peak District. Isabella Worsley has given interiors at this grand stone house a lift with liberal sweeps of colour – think red-and-white striped upholstery and gilt-edged mirrors by roaring fires. There’s also a clutch of Hives – luxed-up cabins – and two treehouses high in the woodland, with terraces filled with blackbird song. The candlelit Garden Room restaurant feels like a romantic indoor olive grove, and David Bukowicki’s seasonal, tasty dishes come served by cheery, unpretentious staff. There’s also a dinky wellness centre for massages using heavenly 100 Acres oils, and facials using honey from on-site hives.
Best for countryside retreat: The Grove of Narberth
Location: Pembrokeshire
With views out to the Preseli Hills, this country house sits in gorgeous Pembrokeshire, just a few miles from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, which has high-drama coastline, 600 miles of trails, golden sandy beaches and quaint harbour villages. Interiors combine heritage features – ceramic fireplaces and grand hallways – with vintage Welsh lace and love spoons, and contemporary artwork by local talent.
As well as 13 rooms in the main house, there’s also a stone-walled longhouse and a handful of cottages with oak-beamed loft rooms. Triple AA rosette The Fernery serves up modern Welsh cuisine with considerable flair – think delicate plates of home-grown vegetables and Black Bomber cheese and morel tart – while Artisan Rooms is more laid-back and a perfect place to kick off your boots and enjoy a leisurely post-ramble bite to eat.
Read more: Eight of the best self-catering holiday homes to stay at in the UK
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